The commission investigating the historic treatment of unmarried mothers and their children in religious-run care homes has dismissed claims that an underground burial plot was in fact a sewage tank. When news of the common grave on the grounds of the former State-regulated home run by the Sisters of Bon Secours in Tuam, Co. Galway,…
After the devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris April 15, Romans and tourists could not help looking at St Peter’s Basilica and wondering, “what if?” But Maj. Paolo De Angelis, head of the Vatican fire department, told the Italian news agency ANSA on April 16 that the structural differences between Notre Dame and…
Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung of Seoul reiterated the Church’s stance on abortion after South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s abortion ban is unconstitutional. The country’s top court called on April 11 for a legislative change to partially allow a mother to choose to terminate a pregnancy in its early stages. While some women’s…
As the flames engulfed the historic cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris last night, firefighters fought to make a passage for one special mission of mercy – the rescue of the Blessed Sacrament and relics from the historic church. It has emerged that the priest who administered the last rites to the victims of the Bataclan…
Many relics saved as fire devastates cathedral France has vowed that the spire of Notre-Dame cathedral will rise again after fire ripped through the iconic symbol of Europe’s Christian identity. Firefighters have been praised for entering the burning building to save some of the most important relics in Christendom including the crown of thorns…
At the end of a highly unusual spiritual retreat for the political leaders of warring factions, Pope Francis knelt at the feet of the leaders of South Sudan, begging them to give peace a chance and to be worthy “fathers of the nation.” “As a brother, I ask you to remain in peace. I ask…
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has signed a bill that would make it illegal to carry out an abortion once a foetal heartbeat is detected. “The function of government is to protect the most vulnerable among us, those who do not have a voice. Government’s role should be to protect life from the beginning to the…
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has banned an Irish-born Legionaries of Christ priest from publicly exercising his priestly ministry for 10 years after he was convicted in Chile of sexually abusing a young girl. Fr John O’Reilly was convicted in Chile in 2014 and sentenced to four years of ‘supervised liberty.’ When…
While Catholic marriage ceremonies are still the most popular in Ireland there has been dramatic decline, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The figures also reveal Irish grooms are now the oldest on record. The CSO data for last year shows that on average men are now aged 36.4 when they tie the knot.…
Retired Pope Benedict XVI, acknowledging his role in helping the Church come to terms with the clerical sexual abuse crisis, wrote an article outlining his thoughts about what must be done now. Seeing the crisis as rooted in the “egregious event” of the cultural and sexual revolution in the Western world in the 1960s and…
Chai Brady